Aviva pulls final dividend, Tesco ups final distribution
By Josh White
Date: Wednesday 08 Apr 2020
(Sharecast News) - London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 84 points lower on Wednesday, having closed up 2.19% at 5,704.45 on Tuesday.
Stocks to watch
Insurance group Aviva pulled its final dividend as it braced for the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Aviva said it remained well capitalised with strong liquidity. By retaining the final dividend, the estimated group capital ratio will increase by 7% to approximately 182%.
Tesco increased its final dividend as the supermarket group reported a 13.5% increase in annual underlying operating profit. The company proposed a final dividend of 6.5p a share from 4.10p a share a year earlier. The final dividend takes the total payout for 2019 to 9.15p a share - an increase of 58.6%. Operating profit before exceptional items and amortisation rose to ?2.96bn from ?2.61bn as sales dipped 0.7% to ?56.5bn. Pretax profit fell 18.7% to ?1.32bn.
Tritax Big Box updated the market on the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic on its business on Wednesday, reporting an immediate impact on the near-term cash flows of its customers. The FTSE 250 real estate investment trust said it still expected that 96% of rents would be collected by the end of May, in respect of advanced quarterly rental payments that were due by 1 April. Its board withdrew its dividend guidance for the current financial year, but said it would continue paying a quarterly dividend, declaring one for the period from 1 January to 31 March of 1.5625p per share.
Newspaper round-up
More businesses in the UK are laying off staff as they start to run out of cash and struggle to get access to emergency coronavirus financial support from the government, a leading employers' organisations has said. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said its weekly survey of how firms were coping with the Covid-19 crisis found an increase in the number planning to furlough workers as a result of the economic lockdown. - Guardian
Fears are growing of a crisis in the UK's ?75bn car loan market, where 6.5m vehicles have been financed through leasing deals with monthly payments that are already proving unaffordable for some laid-off as a result of the coronavirus. The Finance and Leasing Association (FLA), which represents the credit arms of the car manufacturers as well as the banks, said: "It's early days in terms of quantifying the impact on arrears, but the number of forbearance requests has grown significantly in recent weeks." - Guardian
More than a billion workers around the world could suffer financial hardship as the coronavirus destroys jobs, cuts working hours and slashes pay. One-third of the global workforce is expected to feel the effects directly, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) - with those in the retail, manufacturing, accommodation, food and transport industries particularly hard-hit. - Telegraph
Embattled airlines have won a crucial cash lifeline after being allowed to delay paying ?1bn of air traffic control fees. With the industry brought to a near-standstill by the Covid-19 pandemic, controllers have agreed that fees due for February to May this year can be paid later. - Telegraph
Industry across the board in Germany is going through its deepest slump since the country was reunified three decades ago, according to a closely watched survey. Managers in every sector except food and drink believe that their companies' output will collapse over the next three months, with the pessimism at its strongest among carmakers. - The Times
US close
US stocks had turned negative by the close on Tuesday, putting to bed hopes for a second session of gains even as investors focussed on signs the global Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic was slowing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session down 0.12% at 22,653.86, the S&P 500 slipped 0.16% to 2,659.41, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.33% weaker at 7,887.26.
At the open, the Dow was 555.24 points higher and managed to keep its head above the waterline for much of the session, after major indices soared on Monday on the back of an overall more optimistic tone around the pandemic from the White House at a press conference over the weekend.
The strong moves earlier in the day came after South Korea reported less than 50 new cases of Covid-19 for a second day in a row, while China posted no new deaths for the first time since it started publishing daily updates in January.
Also underlining the robust sentiment on Tuesday morning were comments from president Donald Trump, who said on Monday that there was "tremendous light at the end of the tunnel". World Health Organization officials also said research to develop vaccines and treatments for the virus had "accelerated at incredible speed".
"There are really encouraging signs that the worst-hit countries in Europe are seeing significant improvements, that the lockdown measures are working and that life may soon be able to at least start to return to normal," said Oanda analyst Craig Erlam earlier.
"This is the moment investors have been waiting for, a time when they can start to put a date on normality and in some way quantify the damage."
However, Erlam noted that the US was facing a "terrible couple of weeks".
Email this article to a friend
or share it with one of these popular networks:
You are here: news
10 Lower Thames St,
London EC3R 6EN